HOLO 2.5 Launched!

HOLO is ending the year with a bang: a new website. Launched six weeks ago, HOLO.mg expands the print magazine into a more robust, ‘always on’ editorial and curatorial platform. Already a hub of activity, two major research projects are underway, and a slate of new stories and favourites from the HOLO archive are due in 2021.

Longtime CAN readers will remember in 2012 we introduced a new project with a simple question: “what if CAN was a magazine?” These were the origins of HOLO, a CAN-affiliated print periodical that has dedicated about 500 pages to ‘emerging trajectories in art, science, and technology’ over two editions. HOLO distinguished itself by going into leading artists like Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vera Molnar’s studios to dig through archives and talk motivations, and also dove deep into thorny research questions like the WW2-era origins of random number generation. The print edition has been in stealth mode since the release of HOLO 2 in 2016, but the magazine just took a big step forward with a new online edition. 

Six weeks ago the HOLO 2.5 beta launched, and that nomenclature does a pretty good job of describing our intent. The ‘point 5’ indicates HOLO’s new digital platform functions as an in-between issue bridging the last print edition and a forthcoming, reimagined magazine due in summer 2021; the ‘beta’ states the new site is an early build–the foundation–of a new and exciting vision for HOLO that blends print and digital. While the site largely speaks for itself, given the close relationship between CAN and HOLO, we’re going to unpack some of its key features below.

First up is STREAM, which readers of HOLO will surely recognize. For those that don’t, STREAM is  a fold-out art, science, and technology timeline that appended each issue of the print edition, we used it to chronicle the projects, people, inventions, and events that marked the year each our first two issues were in production. STREAM always wanted to be online, and endless, so now rather than folding out it’s scrolling down. Our team is combing the web 24/7 and building a vital archive of links and resources (236 news items and counting …). 


Secondly: Dossiers!  Dossiers are something we’re really excited about, and the culmination of years of partnerships with leading festivals and institutions. Essentially, they are web-based research publications that contextualize and expand upon cultural initiatives in real time. HOLO 2.5 has launched with two timely Dossiers:

“These thematic folios are a place for experimenting with editorial formats and to archive knowledge produced during festivals and residencies and in labs.”

Note: Hello World! –– holo.mg/blog

The Digital Economies Reader: Technology writer Matthew Braga expands on the findings of the Digital Economies Lab (DEL), a year-long research project instigated by Ottawa’s Artengine. DEL brought together a dozen artists, researchers, and cultural workers to think about precarity and prosperity in the cultural sector; it started pre-COVID, and these issues have only increased in importance after the economic crash. Matthew chats with residents and experts, and ruminates on broader themes, and his commentary is accompanied by kinetic typography by Tim Rodenbröker.

Life … After the Crash: Art writer Chloe Stead takes a deep dive into sustainable and resilient futures to complement “POST GROWTH,” the DISNOVATION.ORG curated exhibition that “challenges dominant narratives of growth and progress,” showing at Brussel’s iMAL through January 2021. Chloe expands on the show’s central themes of production, energy, and kinship futures for the world after fossil fuels and zombie capitalism. Her research and commentary is accented by references, diagrams, and dialogue with the curators.


So that’s the gist of our new site, If you’re interested in reading more about our plans for and the motivations behind it, please see our welcome note. Excitingly, work on HOLO 3 is already underway and we’re being bold in rethinking how the magazine will work alongside the new online edition. We encourage you to bookmark holo.mg and add it to your favorites and keep an eye on stream; If you’re not already tuned into HOLO’s socials, here are the links: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. We’ll be back with a further update on the new platform, in early 2021.

CAN Members, we have something special for you coming in the next few weeks. Keep an eye on our feeds + newsletter for more info.

Project Page | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

Labyrinthine TXT “3” featuring words from Harold Cohen’s paper “What is an image?” (1975) is a generative type experiment by NaN.
Shapeshifting across disciplines: “Macchina Inutile” is a flexible visual system designed for HOLO 2.5 by Martin Lorenz of TwoPoints.Net

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